Improved Quality of Life: These are actual patient testimonial videos of outstanding improvements in quality of life with Neuromuscular Treatment of TMJ and Pain Disorders. Hear about recovery from a patient a Mayo Clinic MD told her was hopeless.

Headaches and Migraines affect 25% of US households. At least 10% of the population suffers from chronic headaches. Dr Ira Shapira, a long time Highland Park resident founded I Hate Headaches.org to to help patients suffering from chronic migraines, sinus headaches, chronic daily headaches, tension headaches and TMJ headaches. Over 95% of all headache patients have Trigeminal Nerve mediated headaches. His premiere website www.ihateheadaches.org has helped thousands of patients understand how the Trigeminal Nerve and the structures it innervates are responsible for the majority of all headaches.

Many patients think that TMJ (TMD) disorders are only treated with splints. Dr Ira Shapira utilizes a multifaceted approach to giving patients quick and lasting relief from their chronic pain. He utilizes Diagnostic Neuromuscular Orthotics and has over 30 years experience in Neuromuscular Dentistry. He trained with Barney Jankelson the founder of this field and with Bob Jankelson, his son. In addition to utilizing Neuromuscular Dentistry he is one of only a handful of practitioners to utilize SPG Blocks (Sphenopalatine Ganglion Blocks), Trigger Point Injections and Spray and Stretch techniques to treat Myofascial Pain and Muscle pain from Fibromyalgia. He trained with Dr Janet Travell who wrote the book Myofacial Pain and Dysfunction: A Trigger Point Manual.

This link leads to a YouTube Channel of Think Better Life Patient Testimonial videos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9Bfz6pklC7_UluWFHzLrg

The Website for Dr Shapira’s new Highland Park office is www.thinkbetterlife.com.

The new office is a 1 minute walk from the Fort Sheridan Metra Station for easy accessibility for Chicago patients who depend on public transportation.

According to the Migraine Research Foundation website:

“Migraine is an extraordinarily common disease that affects 36 million men, women and children in the United States. Almost everyone either knows someone who has suffered from migraine, or has struggled with migraine themselves. Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households includes someone with migraine. Amazingly, over 10% of the population – including children – suffers from migraine. That’s more than diabetes and asthma combined! About 18% of American women and 6% of men suffer from migraine. Migraine is most common during the peak productive years, between the ages of 25 and 55.”

TMJ Disorders have been dubbed “The Great Imposter” because the majority of patients are misdiagnosed or only partially diagnosed by the medical community. The Trigeminal Nerve is frequently called “The Dentists Nerve” because it goes to the teeth, periodontal ligaments,, the sinuses, the tongue, the jaw joints and jaw muscles, as well as the tongue, the tensor of the ear drum, the muscle that opens and closes the eustacian tube and a major contribution to the autonomic nervous system. The Trigeminal Nerve also controls the blood flow to the anterior two thirds of the meninges of the brain, or in simple terms the Trigeminal nerve determines whether you will have migraines. The Trigeminal Nerves or Fifth Cranial Nerves is also the single largest contributor to Chronic Headaches and Migraine. Neuromuscular Dentistry is extremely effective in eliminating and treating migraines specifically because of the trigeminal nerve connection. Neuromuscular Dentistry is specifically directed towards eliminating trigeminal nerve nociception or painful input to the central nervous system.

What the majority of the medical community does not know is that TMJ or TemporoMandibular Disorders can have effects on almost every system in the body. The NHLBI or National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH published a report entitled CARDIOVASCULAR AND SLEEP-RELATED CONSEQUENCES OF TEMPOROMANDIBULAR DISORDERS that looked at the far reaching effects of TMJ disorders. The report recognizes the importance of “The masticatory apparatus is not only involved in chewing and swallowing but also in other critical tasks, including breathing and talking.”

The NIH report also state, “TMD has been used to characterize a wide range of conditions diversely presented as pain in the face or jaw joint area, masticatory muscle pain, headaches, earaches, dizziness, limited mouth opening due to soft or hard tissue obstruction, TMJ clicking or popping sounds, excessive tooth wear and other complaints.”

The report shows that 12% of the population suffers from TMD similar to the number suffering chronic headaches and migraines. The report has a major section on “The Craniofacial Complex and its Impact on Control of Upper Airway Resistance and Cardiopulmonary Function” The report covers the pathophysiology of sleep apnea which is implicated in morning headaches, fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction. It is now well established that oral appliances are a first line approach to treatment of sleep apnea and snoring for mild to moderate sleep apnea and an alternative to CPAP for severe sleep apnea.

The Autonomic portion of the Trigeminal Nerve is a key cause and cure for migraines and headaches. This is because of its innervation of the meninges of the brain and its control of blood flow to the brain. The SPG Block or Sphenopalatine Ganglion Block is sometimes considered a miracle cure for migranes. The popular book “Miracles on Park Ave” dealt specifically with the high efficacy of SPG Blocks in treating pain. The new MiRx protocol (http://www.mirxprotocol.com/) that has been show effective for preventing and treating migraines is actually just a different method of utilizing the SPG Block. Dr Shapira has been teaching utilization of the SPG Block to dentists and other healthcare professionals for many years.

Learn more about SPG Blocks @ http://chicago-headaches.blogspot.com and at www.thinkbetterlife.com.

The Mayo Clinic has also clearly stated the importance of the Trigeminal Nerve is headaches and Migraines “Although much about headaches still isn’t understood, researchers think migraines may be caused by functional changes in the Trigeminal Nerve system, a major pain pathway in your nervous system, and by imbalances in brain chemicals, including serotonin, which plays a regulatory role for pain messages going through this pathway.”

Mayo clinic also states, “During a headache, serotonin levels drop. Researchers believe this causes the Trigeminal Nerveto release substances called neuropeptides, which travel to your brain’s outer covering (meninges). There they cause blood vessels to become dilated and inflamed. The result is headache pain.”

These meninges are the Trigeminally innervated meninges discussed earlier and the serotonin and neuropeptides are the chemicals produced by nerve cells. These same chemicals are involved in TMJ, TMD and Migraines. The Trigeminal Nerve always utilizes these neurotransmitters not just for migraines.

Dr Shapira spent years doing research into sleep apnea and its connection to jaw position. His early research was done as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the 1980’s at Rush Medical School in The Sleep Disorder clinic. He worked closely with Dr Rosalind Cartwright the acknowledged Mother of Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr Cartwright recruited Dr Shapira to return to Rush as an Asst Professor in the 1990’s till early this century.

The connections between impaired nasopharyngeal breathing and development of ADD and ADHD in children was the topic of a recent lecture Dr Shapira gave in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The development of chronic TMJ disorders, headaches, migraines and postural distortions were all discussed at his lecture to members of ICCMO, The International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedics of which Dr Shapira is a Fellow and Secretary. Dr Shapira is a representative from ICCMO to the American Alliance of TMD Organizations and current Chair of the Alliance of TMD Organizations.

In the 1990’s Dr Shapira was a star lecturer for the A4M, The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine where he presented his work on the effect of TMJ disorders across ones lifetime. Premature aging and loss of memory and even dementia and Altzheimers disease are part of the same ongoing problem. Sleep Apnea and snoring are types of TMJ disorders according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH in their report: Cardiovascular and Sleep Related Consequences of Temporomandibular Disorders.

Dr Shapira has been utilizing a multifaceted approach toward relieving chronic pain associated with TMJ disorders for over 30 years and is now bringing his expertise to the North Shore Communities of Chicago. He created www.IHATECPAP.com which addressed Sleep Apnea and snoring and utilizing oral appliances to treat these problems. He also created www.ihateheadaches.org that focuses on many types of headaches and the role of Neuromuscular Dentistry in providing relief of these problems.

The DNA Appliance is offering a possible cure for sleep apnea and TMJ disorders by growing the jaws utilizing Epigenetic Orthodontics. Until recently it was believed these changes could only be accomplished through extensive surgical procedures.

Dr Shapira has also studied Cranial Suture Release techniques and Chirodontics. He inroduced these concepts to a Chiropracter who is his friend and colleague, Dr Mark Freund . Dr Freund has embraced these concepts in totality and has become an expert in these techniques through immersive studying both in the US and Internationally. His primary office is in Lindenhurst but he also sees Cranial patients in Gurnee in Dr Shapira’s office www.delanydentalcare.com.

Dr Freund will be treating patients in Dr Shapira’s Highland Park office. These techniques treat not only TMJ Dysfunction but also postural distortion such as forward head posture that leads to headaches and neck pain. These postural distortions can have negative effects throughout the entire body.

The NIH just reported over 25 million Americans suffer chronic pain or 11.2% of all Americans. See The Washington Post Story. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/08/11/nih-m … onic-pain/

Dr Ira L Shapira created the I HATE CPAP (www.ihatecpap.com) and I HATE HEADACHE (www.ihateheadaches.org) websites to help patients find help with these difficult medical disorders that medicine can frequently not treat adequately without a dental collaboration. Dr Shapira did research in the 1980’s as a visiting assistant professor at Rush Medical School where he worked with Rosalind Cartwright PhD who is primarily responsible for the entire field of Dental Sleep Medicine. He also studied with Dr Barney Jankelson who created the initial concepts that neuromuscular dentistry still uses today and created a company Myotronics that is the leading manufacturer of instrumentation used by Neuromuscular Dentistry.

Dr Shapira is the current Chair, Alliance of TMD Organizations
http://www.tmdalliance.org/

Dr Shapira is a Diplomate of The American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, a Diplomate of the American Academy of Pain Management, and a Fellow of the International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedics (ICCMO). He is a former national and International Regent of ICCMO, its current Secretary and the representative to the Alliance of TMD organizations or the TMD ALLIANCE has a general dental practice (http://www.delanydentalcare.com) in Gurnee, Il and has recently started Chicagoland Dental Sleep Medicine Associates with offices in Vernon Hills and Highland Park. Patients in Northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin can contact Dr Shapira by phone toll free at 1-8-NO-PAP-MASK OR 1-800-TM-JOINT or thru his websites at http://www.ihateheadaches.org or http://www.chicagoland.ihatecpap.com.

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Read more Press Releases from Ira Shapira:
Chicago: ADD & ADHD Prevention and Treatment: Sleep Disordered Breathing in Young Children Is a Primary Cause of ADD, ADHD and Bed-Wetting
Can Dentistry Prevent ADD and ADHD and Cure Bed-Wetting? Learn How The Perfect Start System Can Improve Your Child’s Airway. Correction Of Pediatric Sleep Disordered Breathing Is The Key
Neuromuscular Dentistry: Migraine,Chronic Daily Headache and TMJ Treatment. Find A Neuromuscular Dentist at ICCMO,The International College of CranioMandibular Orthopedics
Gurnee Dentist is New Chair of The American Alliance of TMD Organizations. Dr Ira L Shapira’s Practice Focuses on TMJ Disorders, Sleep Apnea, Snoring, Chronic Daily Headaches and Migraines
Highland Park Dentist is New Chair of The American Alliance of TMD Organizations. New Highland Park Office Focuses on TMJ Disorders, Sleep Apnea, Snoring, Chronic Daily Headaches and Migraines

The information provided on this website is not intended to serve as medical advice. An appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan for any patient can be made only by a treating dentist, physician, or group of doctors. Think Better Life shall have no liability or responsibility to any person with respect to loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this website or obtained from other websites to which a visitor may connect and view